The Sound of the Archives at Knox College
The Sound of the Archives asked students to delve into the history, nature, and purpose of Knox College’s archives and its holdings. Through the form of the podcast, students explored the special collections, interviewed the people who work there, and conducted research on some of the interesting objects Knox holds. Structured as a series of episodes sculpted by groups of students in Winter 2025’s MUS 125: Digital Audio Production I, The Sound of the Archives digs into the Rembrandt prints, cuneiform tablets, and bound-vellum prayer books while asking: what does an archive do to and for its holdings and its visitors?
Students edited and developed their podcasts in the digital audio workstation Reaper, recorded with microphone models like: Blue Yeti, Rode NT1A, Apex 415, Zoom H4N, Sony ECM-44B, and deployed creative commons audio samples from freesound.org to shape their sonic narrative. Recorded and background interviews were generously provided by Joseph Taylor, Brandon Roberts, and Jason Connell. Additional podcasting materials, support, and tutorials were generously provided by Dr. Jen Andrella and the Abolition for All Time Humanities Lab at Knox College.
All Photo Credits:
Dr. Eric Lemmon
Knowing Knox
Produced by:
Brayden Nix
Guido Rochin Jimenez
Cassidie Patten
About this podcast:
Brayden, Guido, and Cassidie interview Knox College’s Archivist, Joseph Taylor. In this conversation, they ask: What does an archivist do and how does one come to become an archivist? What purpose does an archive serve? And what does it mean for Knox’s archive to be a teaching archive?
Thank you to Joseph Taylor for sitting for this interview.
The Talk of Yesterday
Produced by:
Ethan Cichon
Jalen Brown
Wali Kazmi
About this podcast:
Ethan, Jalen, and Wali examine the content and physical form of the Cuneiform tablet that Knox holds in its collection. They then reflect on the intersecting problematics of Knox holding an object so ancient and from another culture by asking the question: what right do we have to any object that might have taken a troublesome route to the archive, and which the archive may not be able to perfectly preserve in the future?
Knox and the
Dutch Master
Produced by:
Jojo Johnson
Chris Landon
Megan Walker
About this podcast:
Jojo, Chris, and Megan discuss one of the Rembrandt prints that Knox holds in its archive, alongside the artist’s historical impact and style. As part of their conversation, they dive into how the prints arrived at Knox, and what motivated the donor to give to the special collections at the college.
Curious Minds
Produced by:
Kenzie Ketterl
Nhat Minh Dang
Christian Battaglia
About this podcast:
Kenzie, Minh, and Christian take listeners on a hunt through the history of Knox College and the biography of Maria Skłodowska-Curie to find out just why students at Knox decided to donate $500 to Marie Curie, who subsequently returned a letter of thanks that is still stored in the archives at the college.
Visiting Maps
of the Past
Produced by:
Ryan Erdos
Chris Djambazian
Komomo Oshima
About this podcast:
Ryan, Chris, and Komomo compare two maps of Nova Francia (present day Nova Scotia) from the 16th and 17th centuries. They use these maps to launch into a telling of the history of the development of empire in the New World and the territorial changes of hand that occurred after these maps were made.
Knox Newspapers
of the Past
Produced by:
Brij Patel
Enoch Olubunmi
Willie Rogers
About this podcast:
Brij, Enoch, and Willie read through issues of the Knox Student from 1968. Through the newspapers produced by the student journalists of the time, the group tries to get a glimpse of the social, political, and cultural upheaval of the time and what it might have been like for a student at a liberal arts college during that time.
Timeless Treasure
Produced by:
Natalie Hoffman
Alessandro Carlani
About this podcast:
Natalie and Alessandro consider a vellum-bound book of hours rumored to have been owned by Catherine Howard. But rumors and inscriptions on pages are not always grounded in fact. The group uses the murkiness of the book’s ownership over the years to dive into what it means to trust primary sources at their face value, and more broadly, how an archive can shape the stories we tell ourselves.
Curiosity Untethered
Produced by:
Ben SmithRaley
Shubert Shubert
Bishoy Tadrous
Elliot Nardelli
About this podcast:
Ben, Shubert, Bishoy, and Elliot interview Brandon Roberts, one of the student workers in the archives. The conversation swings between how a student might come to work in the archive at Knox to the exhibit of maps that Brandon put together from holdings within the special collections.
